Friday, June 22, 2012

Though with as hot as our spring was, it feels like we've been in the dog days for months now!﻿

I love how long the days seem this time of year. We've been taking advantage of the extra daylight and heading up to the park or pool in the evenings. It's been perfect and I know when the cooler temps start sneaking in we will miss this!

Here's a few of my current summer obsessions!

My husband LOVES any scent that involves the words "clean" "fresh" "linen" or "cotton" I usually don't mind that in the house, but for myself? No thanks. I prefer not to smell like a dryer sheet. So when I saw this, I got a free sample from Sephora as a joke. Well jokes on me. It's so light and fresh, a little hint of lemon. I love that it's not overpowering and has been a perfect summer scent. And of course, the hubs loves it too. The first time I wore it he actually noticed and commented how good I smelled. Ladies, this never happens, he's not a big perfume guy. I may have to break down and buy it since I'm now on free sample bottle number 2!

I have been wanting to try this brand for a long time so you can imagine my excitement when I discovered I got TWO of their lip glosses for FREE as my Sephora Birthday gift. One tinted. One regular. They're amazing! And they smell delicious, like a lemon bar. It's also the first tinted chapstick that actually gives you a hint of color without looking like a clown. It's quickly become my go to lip stuff.

Since I joined WW I haven't been drinking much. I like food too much to "waste" points on adult bevvies, but with summer here and more trips to the lake I was determined to find something I could drink that wouldn't break the bank. Enter Skinny Girl Coconut vodka. YUM. I mix one shot with a can of La Croix coconut flavored sparkling water and a twist of lime. It's almost sinful. And only 3 points!

I've been on the search for a good pink blush for awhile now, but everything I tried fell short and wasn't "pink" enough. Someone convinced me to check out Bare Minerals Fruit Cocktail. Not going to lie. When I first saw it, I thought "Oh hell no." It looks SUPER bright. But trust me. It goes on a nice, fresh faced, dewy pink. Plus it has a nice shimmer to it.

I've been a strictly silver/white gold jewelry girl for years now, but for some reason, I had the itch to add a little yellow gold into my life. It just looks so good with a tan! I wanted something simple that I could wear everyday. When I saw the gold Karma necklace from Dogeared I knew it wold fit the bill perfectly. I love it!

Every time I walk into my house I feel like I'm at the beach. Then I look outside at my dying grass and remember I'm not. At least with my Sea Spray wallflowers I can pretend. This may be one of my favorite scents they've had in awhile.

I've actually had this Charlotte & Tipit ring since high school, but it's been sitting in my jewelry box collecting dust and tarnish for years now. Well this summer it's making a comeback! I don't have a picture of any of the other pieces that go with it, but the center part is interchangeable making it perfect for pretty much anything. I have about a dozen different bobbles in all shapes and colors. I even have two neon ones which I've been wearing a ton in light of the new trend! I love rediscovering old things!

Last but not least, my summer arm candy. I've seen similar bracelets on instagram, etsy and all over the blogosphere, so when I saw these come up on Zulily one day for super cheap I jumped on them! The company is called Pura Vida and all their items are made locally in Costa Rica. They had SOOOO many color combos I had a hard time choosing, but ended up with these, the "girly girl" set. If it weren't for work, I'd never take them off! {You can also see my Tipit ring in the picture with the "blue fish" bauble. Perfect for summer days at the lake!}

Thursday, June 21, 2012

My baby was swimming this weekend. Like no one holding on. In the deep end. Swimming. With a floaty on of course, but still. I predict he'll be doing back flips off the diving board by Labor Day. Summer Olympics 2028 here we come!

Speaking of the Olympics.

I am geekily excited over them starting!

I love me some gymnastics!

I think it would be awesome to see the games in person some day.

Maybe I will add that to my bucket list.

This weekend I had TWO people whisper congratulate me on my weight loss. As if they had to keep it hush hush. Ummm....this is nothing to keep quiet people. I've lost almost 50 pounds {49.6 to be exact} in 5 months...I'm shouting it from the root tops.

This morning I had this really weird urge to clean the bathroom.

Like nesting minus the pregnant part.

Moments like that don't happen often for me, but when they do I jump on it.

So at 6:30am, in my mumu, you could find me scrubbing toilets.

I gave Birch Box a few months, but after getting one more sample of old lady perfume and designer bandaids this time around....I cancelled that shit. Really? Bandaids? Come on.

Even at my wedding weight a few years back I couldn't squeeze my butt into them.

And believe me, I tried.

Mark my word, I'm going to rock them by New Years!

I {think} we've decided not to have a party for Jamie's Birthdaythis year. It just seems silly to go all out with a theme and invites and all the planning and expense that goes along with it when we will be down at the lake and the only people who will be there are us, my dad, brother and my in laws. We will still celebrate of course....just no big to do.

I've still been scouring Etsy like it's my job,

mentally planning the party we {probably} aren't going to have.

Let's just say it would be adorable!

I've been looking at big boy room things. Because apparently I have a big boy now. {sniff, sniff} Why is it all the bedding I find is either character themed or too grown up. Where are they hiding all the cute, not annoyingly babyish, boy stuff!

In my big boy room searches I also found these to die for cute

name letters that match our current {discontinued} nursery bedding.

I may or may not have gasped out loud when I found them

and immediately told the hubs we needed to pin down a boy and girl name

Spoon mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie plate. With back of a spoon, press mixture firmly into bottom and up sides of pan to form a pie shell. Bake until set, about 5 minutes; place in freezer for 10 minutes to cool.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

...To be kind of nervous pretty much every single week on "weigh
in" day, even though you've done great and really have no reason to
worry.

...To ask for a Garden Flag for your birthday even though you realize how old that makes you sound.

...To bring your child into your bed every morning when he wakes up
at 6. Sure it's a little crowded and you may or may not get punch
and/or kicked in the face a few dozen times, but it beats actually
having to wake up. Sleep is precious. Even just 15 extra minutes.

...To swoon over the 1 week old baby you saw at an engagement party
last week and then proceed to tell your husband that you want one.

...To tell your husband after watching that show "7 Days of Sex"
that you are totally up for that challenge....and then to fail after day
1. Seven days of sex is a lot of sex people. This mama is too tired
for that shit.

...To find out your 16 year old cousin reads your blog everyday and
wonder if you should still talk about sex and say shit. {Hi Mikki!}

...To be naive enough to think a 16 year old doesn't already know
all about sex. And probably says shit as much as you do. {Sorry
Julie!}

...To say shit three four times in one blog post

...To melt into a puddle of mama mush every time Jamie comes over and says "Hug mama."

...To wish grown-ups got summer vacations too. I could really use 3 months off right now!

...That the only reason you did your hair and wore makeup one day last week is because you were getting a new drivers license.

...To wake up every morning and immediately check your phone
and catch up on all your many forms of social media. I like to think of
it as my morning cup of coffee. My husband likes to think of it as
iPhone OCD.

...That 3 years later you're still bummed you don't get Friday's off anymore. Or free trips to Hawaii.

All those years I loved having our special days so close together, now I wish they were light years apart.

Though I don't think it would make this day any easier.

I miss the back and forth banter over who's birthday it is. The constant phone calls reminding me that YOUR special day is in fact less than 24 hours away. And waking up the day after my birthday to wish you a happy happy on yours.

Missing you always, but especially today.

Hope you're enjoying your DQ Ice Cream cake today!
With EXTRA fudge and cookie crumbles of course!
A David wouldn't have it any other way.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012

Lately as the pounds have been coming off people have been showering me with comments like:

"Hey hot mama!"

and

"Look at you skinny!"

I can't seem to wrap my head around it and usually respond with something like:

"Skinny? Me?? Yeah right, maybe in about 50 more pounds."﻿

It's sad really.

I often wonder if I'll ever reach that point where I'm completely happy with my body.

Does any woman?

I hate that instead of being excited and proud for how far I've come, all I can dwell on is how much further I have to go.

It's like I look in the mirror and still see the old me.

I pinch and poke at every roll, every soft spot and every stretch mark.

My husband tells me I'm beautiful and I just laugh.

Cause what could possibly be beautiful about this.

Well this weekend I think I finally started to see what everyone else sees.

I started to appreciate the new me.

I looked in the mirror....and I liked what I saw.

The person looking back at me was rocking that blue dress.

She was confident. And beautiful.

Hard to believe that this was me just a few months ago.

On Saturday when I went to by new bras and I stood in the dressing room shirtless, I admired how my pants hung on my hips without even the hint of muffin top, and how I actually have a waist again.

Sure my stomach isn't as flat as I'd like it be. But compared to where I started I looked damn good.

Then yesterday in one of my new summer outfits I felt comfortable. I wasn't constantly tugging at my clothes in an effort to hide something. And every time I passed a mirror I had to do a double take at who that skinny girl was.

Me!

Do I still have a long road ahead of me to reach my goal?

Yes.

But I also have a lot of road behind me and that's something to be proud of.

It's something to celebrate.

So I'm going to try to stop being so hard on myself.

I'm going to learn to embrace the body I have right now instead of constantly focusing on how I want it to be.

And I'm going to accept all those compliments with a big smile and answer back

Friday, June 1, 2012

Last month during our trip to Columbus {Hometown}, OH we decided to take Jamie to the science museum -- Cosi. To say we had fun would be a huge understatement. Boy had a blast! We all did! I hadn't been in years and never with a kid. It's so amazing to see things you've seen before, but through the eyes of your child. Totally awesome. I also had the chance to play around with my father in laws fancy schmancy DSLR camera and got some pretty good decent pictures for a total novice. Though it didn't help my camera fever at all! So pardon the photo dump that's about to occur.

So there you have it. An almost flashback Friday of sorts. Feels like forever since we were there!

And Yep. I was totally {that} mom. The one with the giant camera attached to her face the whole time!
I loved every minute of it!
Happy Friday Friends!